(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)TAMPA—Ann Romney will tell the Republican National Convention Tuesday that she and her husband, Mitt Romney, have not had a "storybook marriage" but have gone through struggles just like other Americans—including health scares like her bouts with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.
"I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a 'storybook marriage.' Well, in the storybooks I read, there were never long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once. And those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called MS or breast cancer," Romney will say, according to excerpts of her speech released by the Romney campaign. "A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage."
In a speech that aims to humanize her husband, Ann Romney will praise her spouse as someone who has always sought to "lift up others" and someone who will "lift up America" and is the man the country "needs" to help turn the economy around.
"This is the man who will wake up every day with the determination to solve the problems that others say can't be solved, to fix what others say is beyond repair," Ann Romney will say. "This is the man who will work harder than anyone so that we can work a little less hard."
Here are the full excerpts of Ann Romney's remarks, set to begin at 10:05 p.m. ET in Tampa:
Tonight I want to talk to you from my heart about our hearts. I want to talk not about what divides us, but what holds us together as an American family. I want to talk to you tonight about that one great thing that unites us, that one thing that brings us our greatest joy when times are good, and the deepest solace in our dark hours. Tonight I want to talk to you about love.
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Mitt's dad never graduated from college. Instead, he became a carpenter. He worked hard, and he became the head of a car company, and then the governor of Michigan. When Mitt and I met and fell in love, we were determined not to let anything stand in the way of our life together.
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I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a "storybook marriage." Well, in the storybooks I read, there were never long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once. And those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called MS or Breast Cancer. A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage
…At every turn in his life, this man I met at a high school dance, has helped lift up others. He did it with the Olympics, when many wanted to give up.
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This is the man America needs. This is the man who will wake up every day with the determination to solve the problems that others say can't be solved, to fix what others say is beyond repair. This is the man who will work harder than anyone so that we can work a little less hard. I can't tell you what will happen over the next four years. But I can only stand here tonight, as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, an American, and make you this solemn commitment: This man will not fail. This man will not let us down. This man will lift up America!